ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I'm not sure whether these relate to tactical AI, to FOV, or both, but I'll post the issues I discover with the summoner class as I go through with this playtest run. Recently also there was also some other discussion about a number of the summons, but I don't know what's been implemented yet, since I only downloaded the bundled pre-beta.

As an aside, I'd like the say that the summoner, after the adjustments done to it, is a beautiful, beautiful class, so I'd very much like to see it go through into b22 in a playable state. Also, Yeeks were great before, and with the adjustments they look like they're going to be amazing. This Yeek Summoner I've rolled is making lighter work of the Insane difficulty than any character I've rolled in a long time (and I don't even have to stair-scum!)

Issue 1

Firstly- and this is pretty scary -my Ritch Flamespitter has problems with attacking a diagonally adjacent enemy, the problem being that it doesn't attack it:



The ritch was targeting the enemy, but didn't want to shoot it. I think it wanted to run away, but couldn't because my Yeek was stood next to it.
EDIT: This is bad, because if I try to work around this by first summoning the ritch to the orthogonallyadjacent square, it immediately wants to move to the diagonally adjacent square, presumably because 1.4 > 1. The te4_log.txt output for this is essentially the same, so I won't post it.

Flamespitter behaviour (its AI) is to try to create some distance from the nearest target.

So placing the Flamespitter orthogonally does no good. It wants to be further away from its target. For close up work use a close up creature.

I found when running a Yeek Summoner (and yes it is a lovely class) that investment in the Hound and Jelly and Flamepsitter paid off.

You had to summon the right creature for the job. So I would summon a spitter for long range, a hound for close range work and a jelly for blocking when I had to run.

[update]Checking your stdout shows that it wants to escape more than attack so that is what it is trying to do...

fixed

madmonk, I appreciate the advice, but my character was level 3! All I had to work with was a cycle of turtle, flamespitter and warhound. What you saw in my screencap wasn't the tactical layout I intended to work with, since my turtle fizzled out during the lack of flamespitter damage. And tanking turtle + close range ritch should definitely be a viable tactic

And darkgod, much love for the prompt response!

Issue 2:

I have an enemy next to me who has 2 HP (0% of full).

I summon a flamespitter on the opposite side of the enemy, as I am in a tunnel and I can't put my summon anywhere conventionally satisfying.

Now, the ritch could kill this monster, infallibly, with a single use of the Flamespit talent. It, however, chooses to run away, leaving me to get beat on. Hmmm, some ally.

Granted, I could easy avoid this with a less stupid choice of summon, but... it does leave me wondering: Does the tactical AI even factor the current number of hit points remaining on any foes?

(I expect I'll cross-post these to the tactical AI thread when I get a moment.)

Yes, the tactical AI hit the summoner pretty hard. I have been quite busy with work so haven't been able to work too much on it but I think the fleeing issue is already gone on my local copy.

Your tac AI work is beautiful, yufra, and we do understand and appreciate that it's a vast, potentially never-ending task you've set yourself. I will be excited if you're able to take it to the next level, though. Besides, the... intricacies of tactical AI when applied to a Summoner might only make for a ever more fascinating class. :3